Who Dey? Volume II: Dante Rosario

Panthers second-year tight end Dante Rosario has earned the right to be this week’s Who Dey? subject, as he caught the game-winning touchdown for the Carolina Panthers against the Chargers. The catch sunk the heavily favoured San Diego and capped a game where Rosario reeled in 7 catches for 96 yards.

Rosario was born in Beaverton, Oregon and excelled at Dayton High School, being named as the Oregon 2A defensive player of the year in 2002, a year in which he also rushed for more than 1,000 yards as the school’s starting running back. Converted from a blocking fullback into a tight end after one year at the University of Oregon, he scored 13 total TDs in 4 years with the Ducks. However, the most memorable thing Rosario did at Oregon was to flying kick a California player on a punt return, for which he was oddly not ejected much to the chagrin of Cal head coach Jeff Tedford.

The Panthers took a chance on him in round 5 of the 2007 Draft, as he was predicted to go undrafted, but it looks to have paid off. As long as Steve Smith is out of the lineup, expect our boy Dante to see significant touches, because DJ Hackett sucks.

Here’s his game-winner from yesterday:

And a spectacular grab he made at Oregon: